Ask “in the Name of Jesus”
When we pray “in the Name of Jesus,” our prayers and our good works obtain a superabundant value as they are founded on the infinite merits of Jesus Christ. We must remember that we are unprofitable servants (cf. Lk. 17:10) who can do nothing (cf. Jn. 15:5) of ourselves and that our sufficiency comes from Jesus Crucified. “Consequently,” according to Fr. Gabriel in Divine Intimacy, “the first condition of prayer made ‘in the name of Jesus’ is humility, an ever deeper and more realistic sense of our nothingness. It must be complemented by the second condition, a boundless confidence in the merits of Jesus, which surpass all our poverty, misery, necessities and needs. In view of Jesus’ infinite merits, we can never ask too much in His Name: we can never be too bold in imploring the plenitude of divine grace for our souls, in aspiring to that sanctity which is hidden, but genuine. ...Moreover, there is no creature of good will, no matter how weak and insignificant, who, ‘in the Name of Jesus,’ cannot aspire to sanctity.”
“Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only.” Ja. 1:22
“However, in order to make our prayer effective, a third condition is required: our life must correspond to our prayer, our faith must be translated into good works. ‘Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if a man be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he shall be compared to a man beholding his own countenance in a glass. For he beheld himself, and went his way, and presently forgot what manner of man he was.’ Ja. 1:22 This strong exhortation of St. James, which is found in today’s Epistle is an urgent reminder of the practical character of the Christian life. Vain is our prayer, vain our confidence in God, if we do not add our generous efforts to perform all our duties, to live up to our high vocation. We can add, and we should, hope for everything in the ‘Name of Jesus,’ but He expects a constant effort on our part to be entirely faithful to Him.